Various attempts have been made so far as countermeasures or treatments for tragomaschalia, such as elimination of odor by deodorants, suppression of an environment for bacterial multiplication by antiperspirants and inhibition of bacterial activity and sterilization by antibacterial substances such as antibiotics or bactericides.
Steroid secretory epithelial tissues such as aporine glands attributable to tragomaschalia metabolize and secretes various steroid compounds such as cholesterol and sex hormone.
A kind of steroid compound among them is metabolized by bacterial flora that have rooted and multiplied on the axilla epithelium, thus producing an odoriferous steroid compound 5.alpha.-androst-16-en-3-on(5.alpha.-A), which causes tragomaschalia. The compound itself however has not been detected in secretions from the secreting tissues concerning tragomaschalia. A general theory suggests that a C.sub.19 steroid compound metabolized and produced in the secretory tissues may be metabolized again and produced by the bacteria rooted in the underarm.
Among the bacteria rooted on epithelia, many propionibacteria or coryneform bacteria and some of staphylococci include species having a steroid metabolism function.
Conventional countermeasures against tragomaschalia have mainly been performed by inhibiting the production of odoriferous steroid by axilla application of antibiotics, to remove bacteria rooted on the axilla epithelia. The effects however are only temporary, and tragomaschalia can be eradicated at present only by a surgical treatment.
The inventors had studied on the subject of finding a remedy capable of rapidly eradicating tragomaschalia without any surgical treatment and, as a result, found it effective to combine an adrenocorticosteroid and an antibacterial substance as a supplemental agent, which has already been proposed (Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication Hei 3-66608).
Adrenocorticosteroidal preparations have not been used at all for treating tragomaschalia and, therefore, concrete pharmaceutical actions of them against tragomaschalia have not yet been clear, but it is supposed that they are due to the sensitivity of propionibacteria to adrenocorticosteroids and, particularly, due to the inhibition of secretion of causal substances for the odoriferous steroid from the axillary epithelial tissues caused by the action of inhibiting living tissues to synthesize and secrete steroids, which is one of physiological actions of adrenocorticosteroids.
The therapeutic effects of the adrenocorticosteroidal preparation for tragomaschalia are extremely remarkable and rapid, and our initial clinical experiments had revealed that several times of application of an effective amount of not more than about 2 mg can heal tragomaschalia very effectively though it depended on symptoms. However, a steroidal preparation itself might possibly cause adverse drug reactions by continuous use, and it is preferable to use it at a high concentration and for a period as short as possible. The dose however was limited since adverse drug reactions such as eczema, erosion and also lichenoid change might occur if the frequency of administration was increased in accordance with constitutions and symptoms, and infectious diseases might also occur in combination.